Abstract

Introduction The National Lung Cancer Audit, now in its7th year, is run jointly by the Royal College of Physicians and The Information Centre for health and social care, and is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP). Its development was driven by the realisation that lung cancer outcomes vary widely across the UK and are poor compared to other western countries. The aim of the audit is to facilitate service improvement by recording elements of process and outcomes in lung cancer on a large scale and, using case-mix adjustment, to explain the wide variations noted and improve standards of care. Although several other countries also submit data to the audit, this abstract presents provisional results for UK only.

Results In this 7th year of data collection, 31,429 patient records were submitted, making it the most comprehensive annual dataset so far, with year on year improvements in the quality of the data on individual cases. Full details are given in Table 1. Whilst the histological confirmation rate has fallen slightly, it remains well above that recorded in early years. The surgical resection rate has risen and in those patients with NSCLC has gone above 20% for the first time. Almost 80% of patients benefit from the input of a specialist nurses, although in only 60% of cases is the nurse present at the time of diagnosis.

Our final presentation will contain further analyses of survival across the audit lifespan.

Conclusions This new data provides further evidence of rising standards of care in England, which in some cases now approach those quoted by other international groups. Far from seeing a “Seven Year Itch”, the enthusiasm of lung cancer teams continues to produce cancer audit of a standard that is the envy of other groups both nationally and internationally. Major changes in the recording of cancer intelligence in England, such as the mandated Cancer Outcomes and Services Dataset (COSD), will have significant implications for the future role of the audit and work is ongoing to ensure that the data collected continues to be appropriate and relevant.

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